Art project for the apartment…

I’ve taken inspiration from the wonderful folks at YoungHouseLove.com in my attempts to spruce up our apartment living room. Yes, its a rental and anything I put into it, I want to be able to easily remove (and easily cover up with some spakel and paint to get our security deposit back.) I’ve always been in the big-mirror-behind-the-sofa camp style of decorating. Its easy, looks relatively elegant, and makes it easy for even interior decorationally challenged people like myself to make a room look just a bit schnazzier. I’m not sure whether its the fact that I’ve just always resorted to the mirror behind the sofa look or the fact that the hubs has a ginormous (aka: ugly, absurd, etc) 50’’ TV that sits across from the sofa and would oddly reflect any image off the mirror… but I just needed a change. So, two years of living in this apartment and that wall has remained blank. white white white.

And I needed a change.

And the living room needed something — ANYTHING — to hang on that blank wall. Because staring at a blank white wall for two years can kind of grate on you, ya know?

And in my web-perusing, I found this great post with ideas for the behind-the-sofa decorating ideas.

So, I carted my butt over to Ikea, bought six Ribba frames, and spent an equal number of hours struggling with placement, evenness, inevitable wall markings as I banged the frames against the wall while balancing on the sofa edge trying to hang them, and just general frustration with the challenge of hanging six frames evenly (and evenly spaced) all without the aid of a level. Because, how hard could it be, right? I mean, yes the hardware store is around the corner. And we actually have a level at the house upstate. But why make a trip to the store to buy yet another level or wait til next weekend to get that original level when you can struggle all morning with these friggin frames yourself?!

Well, I got them up. And then stared at them for about a week until I figured out what I was actually going to put in them. All the while, ignoring the hubs as he tried to point out how the frames weren’t exactly even – but I convinced him to reserve judgement until once I actually got something in those frames, and “finalized” their placement. Because its a minor miracle that I actually just got those frames up and sort-of even. Right now, I’ll take sort-of even.

I liked the idea of putting a fabric background inside the matting of the frames. God knows I’ve got enough random fabric laying around to fill all the frames housed in Ikea. So, I grabbed some light linen I had been saving for who-knows-what and waited an entire week for the rain to stop to get outside and start taking pictures. I decided to take pictures of places in the neighborhood that are meaningful to me and the hubs: The park where we would often go after work with a bottle of wine and a dinner of sandwiches to watch the boats pass. Our old street corner. The Great Lawn in Central Park where we used to lounge many a Saturday away reading, napping, tanning (well, the hubs was tanning, I was burning), and just relaxing. All of the places that are special to us that I wanted to capture. So, one quasi-nice afternoon of running around the Upper East Side, I had six photo-worthy prints for the frames.

I ended up deciding to forgo the bland linen backgrounds and opted for a purplish card stock to give the room a bit of color. I think scotch taped those photos to the card stock, prayed that they actually stick and there you have it. My art project for the apartment…. and decorating design that doesn’t involve a big mirror hanging over the sofa. But don’t worry, I’ve saved that big mirror – its hanging over our dining room table now. Because I can’t be broken of the mirror-decorating-style cold turkey. Baby steps…

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Hi, I’m Alexis. Welcome to Spools & Skeins! I’ve created this blog as a space to share my love of all things homemade. I’m a newly married, recently unemployed knitter/sewer/amateur photographer with a wee babe and a ridiculous stash of yarn and fabric - and a camera permanently fixed to my hip documenting it all...